Inside Seoul’s closet-sized homes, viral YouTube tour sheds light on gosiwon living

American travel YouTuber Drew Binsky films inside a gosiwon in Seoul on Feb. 1. His outstretched arms nearly touch both walls. Captured from Drew Binsky’s YouTube channel

When Drew Binsky stepped into a gosiwon in Seoul, the doorway alone offered a clue to the life inside. The entrance measured barely 61 centimeters across — narrow enough to require a slight turn of the shoulders to pass through.

Binsky, an American travel YouTuber with millions of subscribers, documented his experience in his video “Inside Korea’s smallest apartment,” posted on Feb. 1. The video tours several gosiwon facilities across Seoul and drew more than 1.9 million views within days of its release, bringing renewed international attention to one of the city’s least visible forms of housing.

“Behind the bright lights and advanced technology, many people are building their lives in rooms smaller than a closet,” Binsky says in the video after visiting a tour guide living in a gosiwon in Seoul’s Eunpyeong district.

Gosiwon — among Seoul’s cheapest and smallest housing options — were initially occupied mainly by students preparing for the highly competitive "gosi" law exams, before gradually becoming homes for people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Residents usually pay around 360,000 won ($250) per month. Utilities such as wireless internet and air conditioning are typically included, along with shared access to basic food such as rice, instant noodles and kimchi. According to figures cited in the video, roughly 150,000 people in Seoul live in gosiwon.

A gosiwon bathroom in Seoul’s Dongjak District visited by Drew Binsky / Captured from Drew Binsky’s YouTube channel

Binsky also draws on his own experience living in compact housing in South Korea while working as an English teacher in 2013. He recalls being struck by a bathroom design that merged the sink and shower into a single fixture — a space-saving arrangement that sometimes left him soaking wet after accidentally turning on the shower instead of the sink tap.

“Some people might call this a closet,” he says in the video. “But in Korea, this is an entire home.”

The video moves beyond spatial novelty to touch on the pressures many South Koreans face, including intense employment competition, deeply rooted social expectations and high housing costs. It briefly references the country’s high suicide rate, without lingering on statistics.

“But the positive attitude they have is inspiring,” Binsky says.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.